Audrey Turned 6!!!

Our Little Audrey Bea turned 6 in September.  We celebrated for almost a month--lucky girl!

The celebration started a few weeks before her birthday in Minneapolis.  We saw The Little Mermaid at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater.  What a performance!  

William, Audrey, and Nora with King Triton.

 Next stop was The American Girl Doll Store in The Mall of America.

Then a quick pose with a Lego girl.

The Husband is actually holding the American Girl Doll's hand.  What a dad!

We met Auntie and Grant for dinner.  Audrey wanted pizza, so pizza it was.  We had the best pizza from Pizzeria Lola!!  Auntie painted this beautiful painting for Audrey!

The next day, we met Auntie and Grant for an afternoon at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  Audrey wants to be an artist when she grows up, so this was ideal for her.  We all had fun!  What a perfect weekend in the city to celebrate our girl!

 Labor Day is when we celebrate Audrey's birthday with family.  We had a nice turn out!!

By the time Audrey's real birthday came around, we were all anxious for her to open the gifts we had been waiting to give her:  an Ariel doll from the Channhassen Dinner Theater (I secretly bought),  a cherry red bow, and Frozen dress!

We are so proud of you and love you so much, Audrey!  Hope your 6th year is the best one yet!!

The Start of Another School Year

We had the best summer.  I appreciated every day of no schedule, and every day with the kids.  I adore summers as much as the kids do, and I really love when we are all home together.  All good things must come to an end, however, and then we get to start on a different, but equally as good, adventure!

My William, the morning before he started 2nd Grade!  

The girls didn't start as early as Brother.  They don't look too happy.  (Nora is looking particularly scrappy in this photo....she rode her bike down the hill to the lake and landed on her face--OUCH).

Audrey's first day of Kindergarten.  This girl was ready for school, but I wasn't quite ready for her to go.  Nora and I miss her during the day. (She is holding a love note from dad, that she folded up and still keeps in her pencil box at school).

William is thrilled to have Audrey in the same school.  He is a great big brother to her!!

 We are so excited to see these kids after school!!!!

Nora and the Husband before her first day of her last year of Preschool!

It's hard to believe our baby is finishing up her last year at Little Lambs.  I am savoring each day with her at home.

Summertime!

We are in the thick of the school year, almost 2 months in, and it seems like summer was a lifetime ago.  What a glorious summer we had!  Here is a sampler of how we kept busy---

Fishing...lots and lots of fishing.  This is one of my favorite pictures of summer.  Audrey reels in the fish with her lucky pink rod, and William takes care of the rest.

Nora loves all fish, from the bait to the walleye!!

Cheetos and fishing, a perfect afternoon for Nora.

My William is growing into a fine fisherman!

Fishing at sunset is one of my favorite things.

Audrey's lucky rod proves itself once again!!! 

On special occasions, the Husband even catches a fish or 2!

Mimi with her big catch (her really big catch got off the line, and she vows she will catch him again)!!

Grandpa Bob.

 Nora won 3rd place in the Children's Division of our lake's fishing contest.  She is so proud of her medal!!

....And I won the Guppy Award!!

We celebrated my sweet Grandma Iris's birthday....

....TWICE!!  Bless her, she lets the kids put 'props' on her!

Some days we just hung out and enjoyed the sun.

Sometimes we read our library books in the tree fort.

We had lots of archery practice in the yard.

We got dressed up and danced on the piano bench.

Martha was required to dress up.  She took it in stride.

We had fairies build a house in our rock garden.  They would occasionally leave treasures for us to find!

We went to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park.  What an awesome place!!

The water was really high, but we were able to cross the river without incident!

 We brought our bikes and enjoyed the fantastic trails within the park.

The Pumpers spent a weekend with us. We love when they come visit!!  William enjoyed fishing with Jon!

The kids--Audrey, William, Ava, and Nora hanging out in the trees.  (Stacy, how do I have no photos of us?!?!)

The Witcik family also paid us a visit. We did a little fishing.

Spent a little time hanging by the campfire.

We found out chalk gets really fun when wet!!

We got to hang out with the newest Witcik:  Baby Charlie.

We hung out in Duluth and ate some good food.

But, most of our time was spent in the water!!

All 7 of the kids...

The BIG boys.

The girls.

We've got goggles in hand, we can't wait until next summer!